Reordinate the Fate

Fourth Destination: First Meal

"You two build the tent." Max glanced at the tent bag as he swiping the lighter, "Seems like there's no instruction given in the package of the step to build the tent, but you know how to make it, don't you?"

"You can leave it to me."

“As Stevan takes the tent out of its place, help me to get more woods and brances, Will. You can use this if you have to cut down.”Stevan handed Cliff a medium-sized machete. The boy looks at the machete and said, “It looks very dangerous. I will look for some which already fell on the ground.” Max smiles lightly and nodded, "Go ahead."

The three of them are busy preparing the camp area before it is getting darker, while Will and Risa continued to look at the river, "Have you ever looked for food in nature like this, Will?"

Will looked at Risa and shook his head, "You know I even never sleep on the ground."

Risa was in silent for a moment, "Then, what kind of sign should we get to find the catches by looking at the river like this?"

They stares at each other with questioning looks for a few seconds, then both of them laughing at the same time, "We are like dumb and dumber."

Will nodded, "How about moving your feet in the river instead of just looking from the edge like this?"  Risa doesn't reply and immediately step into the water, ignoring her wet shoes. "Ouh! This is very cold!"

"Come in! You proposed it!" Risa pointed at Will's shoes, "We can dry them beside the fire later." Will gets into the water. "I think my legs is freezing!" He exclaimed through chattering teeth, "But it feels fresh."

Risa started looking down after tied up her hair. The girl walked slowly and moved to the big rock in the middle of the river.  "This is it! We can eat this, right?" Risa pointed to the gastropod attached to the big rock.

“I've seen him on a television show. They cook it and mix it with pasta.” Will approaches Risa and takes it, “It's quite big. Let's just take everything that looks big enough and ask Max if it's edible."

The two of them were busy picking up the snails a moment later. There are those which size estimated as long as a finger to the size of Risa's grip. "Looks like I saw something." Risa takes the empty net bag Will was holding and exchanged it euth the one she was carrying. "You wait here."

Will of course stops Risa, "Hey, you don't see snakes and stuff, do you?"

Risa shook her head, "More like shrimp." The girl takes step by step closer to the river bank which was covered with grass. It's like paused for a moment before she plunging her hands into the water and grasping something. "Gotcha!"

Risa immediately put her catch into the net bag, "This is freshwater shrimp, right?" Risa can't be wrong, its shape is a shrimp from every side.” Will gave thumbs up from a distance and come closer to Risa, "We can look for it again.”

Moments later, the day turns dark and the two idols returns to camp with wet faces and clothes.  "You guys were quick to set up all of this." Risa hugs her own body whose started shivering.

"Hey, you guys co—" Max chuckled after turned his head looked at the two, "I warned you not to play with water."

Risa shook her head strongly, “No, no! We got many catches.” Risa shows a dozen freshwater shrimps and freshwater snails in the other net bag, "We can eat this, can't we?" Risa brought it closer to Max. The man sitting cross-legged around the fire grabs it and watch it closely, then nodded in satisfaction. "Good job."

Stevan comes out of the tent and surprised to see that they both wet. “Hurry up and change your clothes! You don't want to getting a fever, right?”

Risa replied, “You too! Clean and cook the catches quickly. Don't want to starve, right?” Risa walks into the tent, "I'll change first."  Risa entered the tent and came out a few moments later, with long training and a dry shirt, completed with jacket. The girl seemed to untangle her hair that was tied up before.

Will goes into the tent taking turns with her. Risa looks around and realizes their campsite is neatly arranged. The tent was built solidly and in front of it is a bonfire. Green leaves were piled around the fire and there are three large and long logs. Cliff was sitting in one of them, while Max chose to sit on the pile of leaves that looks very comfortable.

Risa approaches the fire and sits on one of the log. She stretches out her hand to receive the warmth from the fire, after a while, she is looking for a logs that are strong enough and stuck it into the ground. She puts down the wet clothes she brought on her hand.

"Are you cleaning the catches?"

Risa approaches Stevan, who was crouched by the river. The boy nodded, "How can you get this much shrimp?" Stevan deftly slashing and pulling the guts out of the shrimp.

Risa sits staring at Stevan's hand, going to tell him how she got that. “Hooo! I guess you'll be bragging about that after this, Freak.” Stevan stops her and pointed out the sharp points near the tail and head of the shrimp to Risa, “You're very lucky, you didn't get stabbed by this part. Next time use the safety rubber gloves that are in the camping kit while catching the things like this.”

Stevan washes the freshwater snails and places them in the handy boiling pot that comes in the camping utensil bag. He stood and fetched water from a cleaner place. "We can add salt in here."

Risa walks over to the grocery bag that was placed not far from the campfire and grabbed a pack of salt, just as Stevan going closer to her. Add few pinches of salt to taste. "What are we going to do with these shrimp, Max?"

Stevan handed Max a net bag of clean shrimps as he carefully placed the snail stew on the fire. "We can just grill it. I will prepare it.” Max seemed to turn to either side and take a coil of stainless wire.

Quickly, Max stabbed the catches and put it over the bonfire. The five of them circled the campfire and wait for their food to get cooked. “Will, can you get the remote?"

Will, who was sitting on the log, looked from side to side before finding the remote beside his feet. "What's this tool for?"  Will throws it to Max. Max catches it and presses the remote. In the same time, several white lights hanged above them appears, their camp area becoming quite bright.

"I installed it with Max earlier." Cliff explained when Risa asked 'when did they install it'. "Max said it would be too dark if it was just a campfire." Max added Cliff's words, "This is a lamp that will recharge its energy from the sun."

"Isn't that ready to eat?"

Stevan pointed to the shrimp as the boy lifted the snail stew with heat-resistant gloves covering his hand. Max takes out the shrimp from the fire. "Now, this is the real natural vacation."

They enjoy the warm savory broth and chewy snails along with the hot grilled shrimps which are crispy and have a distinctive grilled aroma. Despite the cold wind on their faces, the warmth of the fire in the forest embraced them at the first night of their true adventure.

★★★